WEEK #7
Momentum Over Comfort.
Good day ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to the seventh week of First Principles.
Here’s what I’m sitting with this week:
Advice I’m Revisiting
Marcus Aurelius famously said: “You have power over your mind not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
How profound. Too many of us base our self-esteem on events outside of our control and wonder why we often feel powerless.
If your confidence depends on external events, it will fluctuate with them. That’s the pitfall.
Looking for power in outside events is the equivalent of dulling your own sword. Your sword is your strength which is internal, not external.
Our minds are the only thing we can control outright. We can’t control the weather or other people. We also can’t control what happens to us, but we can control our reactions. That’s our true source of power.
New Words I’m Learning
Synonymous - having the same meaning or nearly the same meaning as another word or idea
Usage: Discipline is synonymous with success.
Cadence - the measured rhythm or flow of language.
Usage: Strong writing has cadence, it moves with deliberate rhythm.
Pejorative - a term that belittles or diminishes through negative implication.
Usage: Calling someone a ‘jack of all trades’ is often pejorative.
Esoteric - understood by a small, specialized group.
Usage: The discussion drifted into esoteric territory only academics could follow.
Virtuosity - describes proficient mastery in a particular skill
Usage: True virtuosity comes from repetition refined over time.
Book I’m Reading
Mastery by Robert Greene. I can’t stop thinking about the following extract: “The moment that you rest, thinking that you have attained the level you desire, a part of your mind enters a phase of decay.”
After years of grinding, iterating and obsessing over Mastery — finally achieving your goals feels fulfilling, like you finally made it. And in that moment you wonder, what now?, Is this it? This is when the decay starts to crip in.
The decay isn’t dramatic. It’s subtle.
Decay happens because you’ve lost your north star, your ikagai, your reason for living. You no longer have a goal to aspire to. A degree of emptiness now plagues you.
Greene reminds us how we need to always have a north star or a goal to aspire to. Something that keeps us going. If you achieve your purpose, find a new purpose before decay starts to rear it’s ugly head. As the old saying goes: “If you’re not growing, you’re dying”.
Podcast Episode I’m Listening To
In this episode Dr Andrew Huberman outlines the most optimal protocols to improve your learning.
What stood out for me in this episode was the idea that studying is synonymous with offsetting the natural process of forgetting.
Think of studying as the weapon you use to fight against forgetting.
Huberman also makes the argument that testing yourself is by far the most effective way to retain information. Testing forces you to remember what you’ve learned and reveals the blind spots in your understanding. It also fosters deep learning which makes it easier to master the material.
As a university student, this forced me to confront an uncomfortable truth: I was reviewing more than I was retrieving. In other words, I was being inefficient with my studying.
Practical Tip:
Instead of re-reading material over and over again, you can save valuable time by testing yourself more. Read one page and test yourself. See how much you can remember.
Read. Recall. Correct. And Repeat.
Full Episode if you want to sit with it longer:
Quote I’m Pondering
“Most people never pick up the phone, most people never ask. And that’s what separates, sometimes, the people that do things from the people that just dream about them. You have to act. And you have to be willing to fail.”
— Steve Jobs
As always, thanks for reading. Have a wonderful weekend.
See you again next week!
Yours Truly,
Tlotlo Makaota
"If you achieve your purpose, find a new purpose before decay starts to rear its ugly head." The trap: Thinking purpose is an outcome. It's not. Look at it as a state of being, how you engage with the world EVERY single day. If you find your purpose is to add value to the world, you do it intentionally every day. If it is to expand the limits of your mind for a deep and meaningful perspective, do it every single day. For Leo, we have art. Don't focus on the outcome. Focus on the state you most naturally and most joyfully embody day in and day out. That is your purpose. The Goal is the vision; they are compatible, but different. And as always, adjust as needed.